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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

They say that Tsinoys are good merchants and good businessmen. Maybe. Or maybe they just had to train themselves to be good in business. Most of the older Tsinoys, like my grandfather, came over to the Philippines in the hope of earning money and maybe giving his family a better life. With limited education, no contacts, no knowledge of either Tagalog or English he stepped onto Philippine shores, and very young to boot (some accounts say he was 16, others had him pegged even younger at 13) -- I can only imagine what he went through to improve his life and that of his family's.

Nowadays, we have the benefit of computers with business intelligence software, MBA programs, college courses, a better command of Tagalog and English, and still we cannot really match the success attained by that generation. Or maybe since everybody then was so down in the dumps at the time due to war that there was really nowhere to go but up. Nevertheless, you had to admire how resourceful they were to be able to make something out of their limited (monetary and otherwise) resources to provide for their families.